Oblong Inc
For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Mar 19, 2024.
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FY2023 · Filed Mar 19, 2024
Contents
Item 1. Business
Overview
We are a provider of patented multi-stream collaboration products and managed services for video collaboration and network solutions.
Mezzanine™ Product Offerings
Our flagship product is called Mezzanine™, a family of turn-key products that enable dynamic and immersive visual collaboration across multi-users, multi-screens, multi-devices, and multi-locations. Mezzanine™ allows multiple people to share, control and arrange content simultaneously, from any location, enabling all participants to see the same content in its entirety at the same time in identical formats, resulting in dramatic enhancements to both in-room and virtual videoconference presentations. Applications include video telepresence, laptop and application sharing, whiteboard sharing and slides. Spatial input allows content to be spread across screens, spanning different walls, scalable to an arbitrary number of displays and interaction with our proprietary wand device. Mezzanine™ substantially enhances day-to-day virtual meetings with technology that accelerates decision making, improves communication, and increases productivity. Mezzanine™ scales up to support the most immersive and commanding innovation centers; across to link labs, conference spaces, and situation rooms; and down for the smallest work groups. Mezzanine’s digital collaboration platform can be sold as delivered systems in various configurations for small teams to total immersion experiences. The family includes the 200 Series (two display screen), 300 Series (three screen), and 600 Series (six screen). We also sell maintenance and support contracts related to Mezzanine™.
Historically, customers have used Mezzanine™ products in traditional office and operating center environments such as conference rooms or other presentation spaces. As discussed below, sales of our Mezzanine™ products have been adversely affected by commercial response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. Like many technology companies in recent months, we will continue to monitor and manage our costs relative to demand with the goal of growing the Company’s revenue in the future. To the extent we believe new investments in product development, marketing, or sales are warranted as a result of changes in market demand, we believe additional capital will be required to fund those efforts and our ongoing operations.
Today, ideation and content collaboration are gaining growing importance in both physical and virtual meeting environments to support collective brainstorming and expedite decision making. Visualization of ideas can happen more naturally when people expand the collaborative canvas from sharing a single content stream among many participants to empowering an entire team, such as through our Mezzanine™ multi-stream solutions. While historically focused on in-room collaboration, the need for next-generation virtual collaboration solutions is on the rise, attributed to the confluence of several key trends that influence the way individuals collaborate. Key capabilities and features of Mezzanine™ include:
Share Work With Others. Easily present work by plugging in or sharing wirelessly with the Mezzanine™ app. Share up to 10 connected devices including laptops, in-room PCs, and digital media players. Upload images and slides to present and explore content alongside live video streams.
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Capture Ideas Instantly. Save snapshots of on-screen content to make sure good ideas don’t get lost. Annotate content in the Mezzanine™ app and share thoughts with others. Download meeting materials to reference or share after the meeting.
Visualize Options and Outcomes. Mezzanine™ content spans multiple displays so the information needed is in sight and on hand. Share more content, see more detail, and improve visual storytelling. Arrange content for side-by-side comparisons and cross-referencing.
Unite Distributed Teams. Connect teams and get everyone on the same page. Meeting participants share the same visual workspace so they can perform like they are in the same room. Everyone in every location can add content and steer the conversation, increasing opportunity and motivation to participate.
Connect with Ease. Mezzanine™ works seamlessly with existing video conferencing and collaboration solutions so teams can join meetings with the tools they use every day. Integration with Cisco and Polycom systems simplify connecting rooms with voice, video, and content.
Orchestrate Content. Place content anywhere in the room from anywhere in the room with Mezzanine™’s award-winning wands. Gestural interaction makes it easy to move and highlight content to focus the attention of the team.
We believe key drivers for demand include:
rapid growth of cloud-based unified communications (UC) services adoption and continuously increasing collaborative intensity in workplaces;
accelerating demand for low-cost video conferencing options such as USB conference room cameras and audio/video soundbars;
rising appetite among end-user organizations for content sharing as well as content collaboration capabilities including ideation, annotation, illustration, and coediting;
convergence of audio, video and content collaboration (as opposed to siloed applications and platforms) to improve employee productivity;
significant growth in the number of huddle rooms and flexible meeting spaces worldwide;
preference for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) screen share in meeting spaces; and
growing number of distributed and remote workers.
Today’s knowledge workers are seeking optimal meeting spaces both in and out of the office that foster creativity, agility, innovation, and engagement. The trend towards ad-hoc and small group meetings has led to the creation of the huddle room concept, where workers can meet in a disruption-free setting. However, it is estimated that a small percentage of these spaces are truly ‘full spectrum’ collaboration enabled. Further, the penetration of stand-alone content sharing applications is significantly less than video penetration in large and huddle-sized meeting rooms. We believe as businesses continue to reopen from the COVID-19 pandemic there will be demand for higher forms of engagement that combines robust video conferencing with enhanced content sharing as users adapt to more flexible workplace alternatives. This combination focuses on allaying customer apprehension with regards to how to cost-effectively pursue an expanded collaboration strategy without replacing their existing investments.
Managed Services for Video Collaboration
We provide a range of managed services for video collaboration, from automated to orchestrated, to simplify the user experience in an effort to drive adoption of video collaboration throughout our customers’ enterprise. We deliver our services through a hybrid service platform or as a service layer on top of our customers’ video infrastructure. We provide our customers with the following services to meet their videoconferencing needs:
Managed Videoconferencing is a “high-touch” concierge-based offering where we set up and manage customer videoconferences. Our managed videoconferencing services are offered to our customers on either a usage basis or on
-4- a monthly subscription. These services include call scheduling and launching, and videoconference monitoring, support and reporting.
Remote Service Management provides an overlay to enterprise information technology (“IT”) and channel partner support organizations and provides 24/7 support and management of customer video environments. Our services are designed to align with a globally recognized set of best practices, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (“ITIL”), to standardize processes and communicate through a consistent set of terms with our customers and partners. We offer, on a monthly subscription basis, three tiers of Remote Service Management options, ranging from remote proactive automated monitoring to end-to-end management to complement the needs of IT support organizations (including 24x7 support desk, incident/problem/change management, site certifications, and service level agreements).
Managed Services for Network
We provide our customers with network solutions that ensure reliable, high-quality and secure traffic of video, data and internet. Network services are offered to our customers on a subscription basis. Our network services business carries variable costs associated with the purchasing and reselling of this connectivity. We offer our customers the following networking solutions that can be tailored to each customer’s needs:
Cloud Connect: Video™: Allows our customers to outsource the management of their video traffic to us and provides the customer’s office locations with a secure, dedicated video network connection to the Oblong Cloud for video communications.
Cloud Connect: Converge™: Provides customized Multiprotocol Label Switching (“MPLS”) solutions for customers who require a converged network. A converged network is an efficient network solution that combines the customer’s voice, video, data, and Internet traffic over one or more common access circuits. We fully manage and prioritize traffic to ensure that video and other business critical applications run smoothly.
Cloud Connect: Cross Connect™: Allows the customer to leverage their existing carrier for the extension of a Layer 2 private line to our data center.
Sales and Marketing
We use a variety of marketing, sales, and support activities to generate and cultivate ongoing customer demand for our product offerings and managed services. We have limited sales and marketing resources and we currently have a small sales team. We sell globally through both direct customer sales and channel partners.
Customers
We have a diverse customer base including Fortune 1000 companies, along with small and medium enterprises across a wide range of industries including aerospace, consulting, executive search, broadcast media, legal, insurance, technology, financial services, education, healthcare, real estate, retail, construction, hospitality, and government, among others. We seek to establish and maintain long-term relationships with our customers.
Many factors influence the collaboration requirements of our customers. These include the size of the organization, number and types of technology systems, geographic location, and business applications deployed throughout the customer’s network. Our customer base is not limited to any specific industry, geography, or market segment.
A significant portion of our products and services are sold through our distribution channels, and the remainder is sold through direct sales. Our distribution channels include systems integrators, channel partners, other resellers, and distributors. Sales to these service providers have been characterized by large and sporadic purchases, in addition to longer sales cycles. Historically, we have seen fluctuations in our gross margins based on changes in the balance of our distribution channels.
Major customers are defined as direct customers or channel partners that account for more than 10% of the Company’s total consolidated revenue. For the years ended December 31, 2023, and 2022, one major customer accounted for approximately 56% and 47% of the Company’s total consolidated revenue, respectively.
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Competition
The market for communication and collaboration technology services is competitive and rapidly changing. Certain features of our current Mezzanine™ product offerings compete in the communication and collaboration technologies market with products offered by Cisco WebEx, Zoom, LogMeIn, GoToMeeting, along with bundled productivity solutions providers who offer limited content sharing capabilities such as Microsoft Teams, and Google G Suite. In the rapidly evolving “Ideation” market, certain elements of our application compete with Microsoft, Google, InFocus, Bluescape, Mersive, Barco, Nureva and Prysm.
With respect to our managed services for video collaboration, we primarily compete with managed services companies, videoconferencing equipment resellers and telecommunication providers, including BT Conferencing, AT&T, Verizon, LogMeIn, Yorktel, ConvergeOne, and AVI-SPL. We also compete with companies that offer hosted videoconference bridging solutions, including, Vidyo and Zoom. Lastly, the technology and software providers, including Cisco, LifeSize, Microsoft, and Polycom, are delivering competitive cloud-based videoconferencing and calling services. With the technology advancements over the past few years, including browser-based and mobile video, the options for video collaboration solutions and services are greater than ever before. With respect to our managed services for network, we primarily compete with telecommunications carriers, including British Telecom, AT&T, Verizon and Telus. Our competitors offer services similar to ours both on a bundled and unbundled basis, creating a highly competitive environment with pressure on pricing of such services. Revenue attributable to our managed services described above has declined in recent years primarily due to loss of customers to competition. We expect this trend to continue in the future for our managed services business.
Intellectual Property
The core technology platform for Mezzanine™ is called g-speak. It enables applications to be developed that run across multiple screens and multiple devices. Our customers use the platform to solve big data problems, to collaborate more effectively, and to go from viewing pixels on a single screen to interacting with pixels on every screen.
Videoconferencing has traditionally presented challenges for the user by presenting a complex maze of systems and networks that must be navigated and closely managed. Although most of the business-quality video systems today are “standards-based,” there are inherent interoperability problems between different vendors’ video equipment, resulting in communication islands. Our suite of managed services for video collaboration can be accessed and utilized by customers regardless of their technology or network. Customers who purchase a Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, or LifeSize (Logitech) system, or use certain other third-party video communications software such as Microsoft, WebEx or WebRTC, may all take advantage of our services regardless of their choice of network. Our services support all standard video signaling protocols, including SIP, H.323 and Integrated Services Digital Network (“ISDN”) using infrastructure from a variety of manufacturers.
Research and Development
The Company incurred research and development expenses during the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022 of $0.02 million and $1.7 million, respectively, related to the development of features and enhancements to our Mezzanine™ product offerings. During late 2022, we ceased the majority of R&D activities as a cost savings measure.
Employees
As of December 31, 2023, we had 21 total employees including 17 full-time employees. Our human capital resources objectives include, as applicable, identifying, recruiting, retaining, incentivizing and integrating our existing and new employees, advisors and consultants. Our compensation program is designed to attract, retain, and motivate highly qualified employees and executives and is comprised of a mix of competitive base salary, bonus and equity compensation awards, as well as other employee benefits. Our employees are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and we consider our relations with our employees to be good. We are committed to diversity and inclusion as well as equitable pay within our workforce. In addition, the health and safety of our employees, customers and communities are of primary concern to us.
Strategy
In recent years, our Company has faced significant challenges, leading to declining revenues for both our Mezzanine™ product offerings andour Managed Services. These setbacks have prompted us to undertake a comprehensive review of our strategic direction with the aim of enhancing shareholder value through various means.
Our exploration of strategic alternatives is diverse, encompassing the consideration of a range of transformative actions. These include the possibility of a business combination, where we might merge with or be acquired by another company; a
-6- reverse merger, where a private company merges with us to become public without going through the traditional initial public offering process; or outright sale of the company. Each option is being carefully evaluated to ensure it aligns with our overarching goal of sustainable growth and value creation.
Our strategy for growth is twofold: (i) we aim to grow organically by expanding our market presence and increasing adoption of our products and services, and (ii) we are actively seeking inorganic growth opportunities through strategic partnerships or acquisitions. Specifically, we are interested in early-stage technology companies that are not just innovating but have also developed minimum viable products (MVPs) that have gained some measure of market acceptance. These companies may complement our existing offerings but, could also open new avenues for expansion by tapping into significant market opportunities.
In our quest to find the right partners or acquisition targets, we are particularly focused on ventures that have demonstrated their ability to innovate and capture early-stage interest of their target markets, indicating a clear path to scalability and a substantial market presence.
However, it's important to note that while we are committed to this strategic review process, there is no guaranteed outcome. The process of identifying and executing on the right strategic alternative, whether it be a merger, sale, or business combination, is complex and uncertain. We want our shareholders to understand that, despite our best efforts, there is no assurance that this strategic review will culminate in a definitive transaction involving the Company. Our priority remains clear: to explore every avenue that could potentially enhance the value we deliver to our shareholders and ensure the long-term success of our Company.
Corporate History
Oblong, Inc. was formed as a Delaware corporation in May 2000. Prior to March 6, 2020, Oblong, Inc. was named Glowpoint, Inc. (“Glowpoint”). On October 1, 2019, the Company closed an acquisition of all of the outstanding equity interests of Oblong Industries, Inc., a privately held Delaware corporation founded in 2006 (“Oblong Industries”), pursuant to the terms of an Agreement and Plan of Merger (as amended, the “Merger Agreement”). Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, among other things, Oblong Industries became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company (the “Merger”). On March 6, 2020, Glowpoint changed its name to Oblong, Inc.
Available Information
We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. The Exchange Act requires us to file periodic reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The SEC maintains an Internet site at http://www.sec.gov that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information that we file electronically with the SEC.
In addition, we make available, free of charge, on our Internet website, our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to these reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file this material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. You may review these documents on our website at www.oblong.com by accessing the investor relations section. Our website and the information contained on or connected to our website is not incorporated by reference herein, and our web address is included as an inactive textual reference only.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.